More High Speed stuff

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 20 Sep 2005 2:41 pm

I am ready to upgrade from my stone age dialup. I've done some research and what I find is that I can get Verizon DSL for $30/mo. for 3.0Mbps service or stay with Earthlink for $45/mo. for the same. Both offer freebie incentives that in the long run average down to nothing--I'm just comparing the monthly rate since I always look to be in things for the long haul. I'm really ticked off because I would MUCH rather keep my email address with Earthlink but they aren't even trying to be competitive. I had a live online chat with an Earthlink rep to see if I could get a hidden special price out of them but I just got a prepared spiel about how life is better with Earthlink.
I'm just venting, I guess--I so much don't want to have to go change my data with all the banking, paypal and other online stuff I'm registered with but this is a not insignificant chunk of change between the two DSL options.
I feel totally dissed by Earthlink's failure to respond to the marketplace.
Bah![This message was edited by Jon Light on 20 September 2005 at 03:42 PM.]

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 20 Sep 2005 3:24 pm

Jon, fortunately you have a choice. Where I'm at, I can't get the less expensive DSL (I'm more than 3 miles from the Telco central office) and the ONLY broadband I can get is Cable, which is $44 plus taxes per month for either RoadRunner (what I have), or Earthlink via the cable connection.

You will have to decide on whether the $15 less per month is worth the hassle (I would think it is).

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 20 Sep 2005 3:56 pm

You are exactly right, Jack--I am lucky to have the options--I'm wired for TW Cable and I apparently can get the DSL. And I may be lazy but I'm not stupid (or rich) regarding the $180/year difference. I know that sometimes with phone companies you have to bust them to get them to reveal different service plans that might save you bundles. I was hoping that maybe I could get Earthlink to fess up that they would soon be cutting prices or something. Far as I'm concerned they blew it.
Looks like everybody in my address is going to soon be geting one of those annoying address change announcements. Oh well. Sorry.

Lawrence Lupkin · Post by **Lawrence Lupkin** » 21 Sep 2005 11:46 am

I'm not sure if this is relavent, but the phone lines in our neighborhood are ancient, and many folks have noise and other problems with their landlines. Would this affect D.S.L? Keep in mind that I know less about technology than I do about steel guitar.
For what its worth, I've used Road Runner without incident for years.

Good luck!

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 21 Sep 2005 1:29 pm

Good question. I have no line quality issues but I do wonder if this is something that would degrade myu DSL service. We'll see--I just ordered the Verizon. Had a couple of funny online chats with Earthlink--I flat out gave them the chance to keep me as a customer by giving me a price that was even somewhat competitive. They kept cutting/pasting their PR approved lines about how wonderful they are and how everybody loves them etc. I told 'em 'bye now', a company that wasn't responsive to the marketplace was not likely to be around for the long haul. I have no doubt that they will introduce lower rates soon enough. But not soon enough for me.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 21 Sep 2005 1:37 pm

DSL requires "straight copper" (wiring directly from the Telco central office, no repeaters, etc in the circuit. And it has a length (distance) maximum of 15000 ft from the telco central office - which shouldn't be a problem in a big city.

You do need a fairly good telco line, however since the digital and analog (voice) operate on separate frequency spectrums what would affect a voice grade line may not affect the digital (and then again it may).

Telco (in this case Verizon) should run a quality test on the line before certifying it for DSL.

I'd do some investigating. Go to www.dslreports.com and scan through the info there. That site seems have more info than any "independent" site.

erik · Post by **erik** » 21 Sep 2005 3:47 pm

Jack, I read your info before on DSL requirements and I don't want to start an argument but I spoke with a SBC technician in the field last week who, admitedly, only works with TI lines, and when I relayed the information about no optical (called a "slick") in between copper, he said it wasn't true. Maybe he's FO*.

I'm supposed to be activated tomorrow but I won't have the time to install my modem 'til the weekend.

BTW, before you can sign up with SBC you have to type in your phone number and they tell you whether it is available for your line. Mine said it was but only the slow speed was offered. I am about 1.6 miles from nearest station.

------------------
-johnson

[This message was edited by erik on 21 September 2005 at 04:51 PM.]

erik · Post by **erik** » 21 Sep 2005 6:13 pm

This link is much like what the guy was telling me --> http://www.dslreports.com/information/kb/technical+hurdles

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 22 Sep 2005 2:03 am

Erik, I used to work with data lines, including T1's (and with SW Bell quite a bit). The T1 lines are totally digital and have a specific line requirement, which is different from a standard "3002" analog (voice) line.

As a side note, one of the screen names I use is "fireberd". That was taken from the "Fireberd" T1 data link test set name.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 23 Sep 2005 1:08 pm

When I was using a dialup, connections that worked fine for voice were often no good for my computer. Even one splice in the line would result in problems connecting and downloading. I can't believe DSL would be any different.

Data is data.

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 23 Sep 2005 9:57 pm

Years ago (1984)I was working with transcontinetal data communications. Bell 2400A Bisync modem in Holland and one in Bradford, Pa. System installed, works well for 3 months (daily) then quits. Fought with it for 4 months, nothing, nada, zip. Finally a tech from ATT/New Jersey calls me asking about the problem. Turns out some engineer at the New Jersey head of the transcontinental portal of AT&T overseas changed the primary circuit selection for overseas phone calls from standard copper circuits to TASI cable circuits. TASI stands for Time Assigned Speech Interpolation, where they multiplex two voice channels onto one wire channel. You loose approx 5 milliseconds of signal each channel for each multiplex switch, which happens frequently each second. The human ear can't really tell the missing material, but it wreaks havoc on a data carrier signal.
That's kinda what noise on the data channel causes. I don't mind it 'cause I'm glad it works at all...

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 24 Sep 2005 2:15 am

Ray, for voice that mux would not make a difference, however, as you found out for data it will.

The first "on-line" computer terminal network for SSA used 1200 baud modems on 3002 "voice grade" multi-point analog lines. There were many problems with the basic voice grade lines and AT&T (it was basically all AT&T then) had to upgrade some of the basic 3002 circuits to C2 conditioning to get them to work. C2 conditioning requires a better frequency response over the voice bandwidth, sets delay parameters, signal to noise ratio,etc. Those days a lot of the remote sites were connected via "R" (Radio) carriers and that introduced a lot of noise.
"R" (and "N") carriers are now a thing of the past and practicaly everything is digital between Telco central offices or between cities.

Jon Bergh · Post by **Jon Bergh** » 24 Sep 2005 5:27 am

Jon-
I used to live in Brooklyn and had DSL for several years as it was my only option. It was through a Seattle company called Speakeasy and although their customer service was stellar the line would go out periodically, sometimes for minutes sometimes for hours.
I eventually switched to Time Warner cable and it was a little cheaper, much more reliable, and fast as hell.
You can keep your Earthlink account with TW, I believe.

Just one more opinion. Good luck.
-jon